The Place we live

"I have arrived, I’m home."

Thich Nhat Hanh 

 

During the Pandemic, our Homes become a true sanctuary and a refuge from calamity and chaos all around us. The time we are spending with our families and memories we make together will have a multi-generational impact. In our recent history of collective memories, humanity never had such deliberate pause and Homebound time, especially the era known for the busyness of life and speed of changes. Many essential services providers are compassionately serving by making supplies, running deliveries, caring for our sick, and tending our old. Our lives suddenly shifted to slow lanes across the globe. We find more time for immersion in stories our children weave, a languid hug with a loved one, a tad longer coffee break. Life on a slow lane is a meditation on mundane. In these times, we draw our attention to our humble abodes.

 During my neighborhood walks, I observed every one seems to be busy with home caring. The Meticulously mowed Lawns, The Paint Jobs, Fending of fences, Refurbished decks, and Reinvigorated Gardens. Physical mending is an essential distraction to take a respite from the constant media bombardment. These unprecedented times also call for the spiritual grounding of our homes and ourselves to find our true selves.

Before Pandemic in our hectic life of hurried everything, constant sensory overload, we have a longing to come back home to have a quiet dinner with our family. Share a quick story, find a lone movement of reflection, embrace a hug with our loved one before we collapse on the bed, and get ready for the next day’s hamster wheel. How much attention we bestow on our home, when we want to decompress, we run to enticing imagery locations from glossy magazines. When we arrive, we quickly realize the pictures, and what we imagined is better than the reality of it.

THREE FORMS OF HOME:

In Zen, the Buddha is described in three forms. The First is “Nirmana Kaya,” which is the Physical body form of the historical Buddha who walked the land. “SambhogaKaya” is the bliss body or realm of the Buddha mind that brings all things together and the essential nature of Interdependence. Finally, “Dharma Kaya “is the cosmic reality of the “suchness” of everything. Our Homes also exist in three forms, the physical structure of our home, the sand, wood, glass, steel, brick, and mortar that binds them. Bliss body of home is the creation of our memories and emotions and life that happens by being together. Finally, Home as a sacred place that creates mindful living in every moment and every step we walk through the home.

THE PHYSICAL HOME: THE INNER HOME THAT REFLECTS THE OUTER WORLD :

Our home is a microcosm of the outer world; the rise and fall of energy in our house is a direct reflection of the outside world. Mirroring the external world within our inner sanctuary creates Harmony and balance. Few essential things we could do with minimal investment but with plenty of love and care.

• Ensure sunlight is abundant in our home, and as a  natural source of illumination in most of our homes. Create windows where possible or reflective mirrors to brighten the shadowy corners or passageways. We rise with the sun to welcome Light and to awake our senses and the soothing sun setting to calming and settling down before we retire.
• Avoid glaring and uniform lighting. Light and shade give a sublime sense of passing off the time. Lighting changes unfold perceptual shifts of everyday objects we use. Using shoji screens, Linen curtains, and wood panels show the sublime play of Light and shade.
• Home furnishing and accents created by the fusion of living materials from the natural world and human-made elements. The wood, stone, concrete, and polished steel ages well along with us to give a sense of softening edges and glowing warmth.
• Muted and neutral tones of weathered, patinated wall colors give calmness and serenity. Bright colors are energizing but also tiring to our eyes in prolonged usage.
•  Water is the prime source of life force, Chi or Prana. Life forms emerged from the water. Flowing water of small fountains brings fluid energy of soothing sounds, and a Basin of still water with water lotus represents subtle energy of calming mind.
• Recessed floors and sunken pit areas are a reflection of mountains and valleys, we celebrate the peaks and unwind in valleys.
• Every day allows the breeze to flow in and out of Home, Feeling the wind by gentle bamboo chimes creates soothing energy flows.
•  The right placement of House plants creates symphony and represents the living forest in our home. Plants form natural lungs and allow us to exhale the toxins we build from cooking, cleaning, and washing. Care and nurturing of house plants cultivate deep patience and inner compassion for all living things. Bonding with them and carefully observing them teach us when they are happy or sad, need for water, and the warmth of sunlight.
• When seasons change, we should change color patterns, textures, and alignment of objects to space. Signaling to our home and inner self on the transition to a new phase and also circularity of life in creation, decay, and recreation.
• Creating a Room with windows of sweeping views of the outer world creates connectedness of the inner world with the external world. The veranda or Engawa are exterior to home yet part of the home. They protect us from rain or harsh summer light by sloping roofs while allowing the outer world to seep into the inner home.

 

BLISS BODY HOME: LIVING IN EMPTINESS

In our culture of everything more, If we don’t fill the space, we feel like not doing enough for home or family, ashamed to be auster. The undecorated and open interiors create purity of white space and monastic simplicity. Most sacred places built to recreate the vastness of space, allow us to clear our thoughts, and grow expansive in our mind.

• Leave open to filled space 80/20 ratio. One should be able to roll on the floor, walk around with great fluidity without bumping into objects and furniture in any room.
• Don’t rush to buy and fill the space with fancy stuff, and they end up like uninvited guests. We start by contemplating what we want and what relation we want to make with the object and how we want to care for them. When we change our perspective from the object of desire to object of relationship, our craving diminishes.
• When we meditate on open space, the most elegant objects with purpose reveal themselves. When We invite them into our home like a cherished friend, they form a life long relationship of giving comfort and warmth.
• Over time we tend to accumulate. The overflowing cupboards, Piled clothes in closets, stuffed garages. We recreate emptiness by treating our unused and unloved objects like a trapped friend and kindly release them from our prisons and allow them to find a new place or new form.

Bliss body Home: Memories we cherish and objects we care :

Every home is a collection of memories of people who live there in the present and past. Developing intimacy with space and connecting with Household objects is the way we find our ground of warmth and comfort. Objects of elegance and Purposefulness create joy when we attain them, and they make us be with them, use, and rest in them. 

• Create a place for objects we cherish from our travels, loving moments of life. Caring for them allows us recalling and invoking those joyous movements 
• Hand drawn Pictures and natural dynamic movement photography of People we care is an expression our love, gratitude 
• Create a corner of the private sanctuary and safe heaven enveloped with warmth and coziness. Warm Pashmina shawls to wrap around, soft, colorful pillows to roll with, books we love and keep going back to read.Whiffs of Fragrances that comfort us and take us back in our memory lane and candles with a gentle glow. This corner is the Place we visit in our dark hours to seek self-care and to restore ourselves.
• Bring your lovable father /Mother, or wise grandparents used, aged /salvaged furniture, personal ,Keep sakes and usable objects, and keep in a place for keeping your connection with your lineage. 

COSMIC HOME: CREATING OUR SACRED SPACE

Creating a sacred place, an Altar in Home is the essential first step in developing a spiritual journey. Heart Sutra says “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form,” creating a Physical alter creates a space in our inner self and opens up the possibility of a spiritual journey. 

• The small Altar in your home, a Pooja room /Butsudan / Prayer corner with any sacred object /statues placed with reverence. 
• The symbolic border between the sacred corner /room and the rest of the Home by Creating an entrance by Norin / curtains. The separation is similar to the Torigate of shrines / Dwara ( Temple gate ) that allows one to signal our transition from mundane to sacred space. 
• Develop a daily ritual of prayer, meditation, Mantra chant, or a holy act of bowing in front of the Alter to create positive vibes. 
• Temple bell sounds and burning incense allows sacred healing sound, and wind energies to float through the home.
• Periodic cleaning, washing of sacred objects also sublimely purifies our minds and bodies. 
•  Periodic smudging of dark corners, living spaces by the drift of incense creates a sense of cleansing and positive energy circulation.

COSMIC HOME: MEDITATION ON MUNDANE HOUSE CLEANING CHORES 

Clean, well-cared homes create our inner order and calmness in a chaotic external world. The home ritual of cleaning done mindfully is a training ground of our senses to appreciate the ordinary. The accumulating dust, sublime change in patina, the soft torn-out corner, a glossier surface from erosion, all of them are our meditation on mundane.

• Gentle sweeping of floors with a hand brush and brushing away of dust and grime is a spiritual act of clearing the mind. 
• Washing /hosing down our outer yards and soft rinsing and cleaning with wet clothing of Inner homes creates the fresh and live energies. 
• Mindful Polishing of tiles, mirrors, and glass windows clarify our mind, and while Light shines on them, brightens the home.
• Keep rotating furniture and other objects to move out the stale energy.

ARRIVING IN PLACE, WE CALL OUR HOME:

We don’t need an Instagram perfect home to make our Home the Place we are longing to come back or plan for a staycation. Our home could be sparse yet spacious and joyful. The space we call home changes all the time, making it a living being that changes us as a person. We could apply our inner Zen to the physicality of our Homes to bring intimacy and also make our home a sacred place to dwell in mindfulness. As a living place, our homes could nourish and restore our wellbeing and mindful living.